


Rules

by lunrdarling



Category: IASIP, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: F/M, Mention of Molestation, but it's talked about, mention of rape, nobody gets raped in this, rape tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-28 02:35:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12596224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunrdarling/pseuds/lunrdarling
Summary: Dee and Charlie are setting up some rules for their fwb situation when it goes south.





	Rules

Dee and Charlie sat at the table in her apartment, with a piece of paper in front of them. They’d been sitting there for about 30 minutes now as they made the list together. If they were going to start fooling around regularly, and were going to make it a normal thing (or as normal as it could be for the two to hook up with each other), then there needed to be rules. 

“You know, Dee, I’m not so good with rules. Maybe we could call them ‘suggested guidelines’,” Charlie had said when they’d first sat down. 

“ _No Charlie_ ,” Dee insisted, “They’re going to be called _rules_ because that’s what they are. If you break the rules, then-”

“Or if _you_ break the rules!”

Dee sighed. 

“If either one of us breaks the rules, then whatever this is,” She gestured between the two of them, “Will get messy and nobody wants that.”

Dee had been the one who filled up the list so far. She’d had a few in mind, which is why she’d demanded that they make the list in the first place. This was a weird new thing that they were doing. It was unexplored territory-- some may have even said forbidden. If they were going to venture farther forward into it, there needed to be some kind of structure so that it all didn’t fall out from underneath them and ruin their lives. 

“Okay Charlie. Your turn to add some on this list,” She said to him. 

“Read me what we have so far.” 

“Number one: both members of the party must keep up their hygiene to the best of their abilities,” The last bit of that rule had been forcibly added on by Charlie after a small argument about what was considered ‘keeping up with their hygiene’. After all was said and done, they’d come to the conclusion that it was reasonable to expect Charlie to keep his teeth brushed and to take showers at least twice a week-- although Dee highly encouraged more than that. She also made him promise that he’d take a shower if (and when) she asked him to, if she thought that he was too dirty, only after he made her promise that she wouldn’t abuse the ‘power’.

“Number two: condoms must be used if and/or when having sexual relations with someone outside of us,” That rule had been a bit obvious to Dee, but she didn’t know if it was obvious to Charlie. While she knew that she could make sure they used condoms when they were together, she had no way of knowing what he’d do in the small, small chance that he hooked up with anyone else besides herself. She would never say it out loud but now that she and Charlie were hooking up regularly, she didn’t feel the need to go out and flirt or find other dudes to bang. Dee was going to tell herself that she liked the convenience of the agreement and not that it was Charlie in particular. 

Okay, maybe it was a little bit because it was Charlie in particular.

“Number three: the activities performed together stay between us, and only us,” That rule was already an unspoken one established between them from the beginning. She felt that it was worth writing down though, just in case. That way she could point to concrete evidence of it actually existing in the case that Charlie opened his mouth to someone. 

“That’s all we’ve got so far,” She looked at the list and tapped the eraser end of the pencil onto the table a few times, “What else?”

Charlie thought for a second. 

“If one of us says stop or doesn’t wanna do something then the other person has to listen and stop.”

“Well yeah, Charlie, no shit. I don’t really think we have to make that a rule. It’s just kind of common courtesy and common sen-”

“Put it on the list, Dee,” He interrupted her before she got a chance to finish, sounding a bit frustrated. 

She let out an exasperated sigh but added it anyway. 

“No doing sexual stuff to the other person while they’re sleeping,” He leaned against the table and watched as she finished writing his first suggested rule. 

“No _shit_ Charlie. I’m not some kind of pervert.”

“Write it down,” He insisted. 

“I’m not going to write it down, because that doesn’t need to be actually written anywhere, Charlie. I’m not gonna try to touch you in your sleep, and you’re not gonna try to touch me in my sleep, so why do I need to put it as a rule when nobody wants to do it in the first place?” 

“Just fucking put it on the goddamn list, Dee!” He screamed loudly, hitting his fist on the table as he did. 

Her eyes widened and she stared at him for a second. He stared back, breathing hard. She could see his hands shaking a bit. He bounced his leg up and down rapidly under the table. A bad feeling washed over her body like cold water. She added it to the list, watching Charlie in her peripheral vision the entire time. When she was finished writing, she looked over at him again. 

“Are you.. Are you okay?” She said quietly. 

“Yeah,” He averted his eyes away from her and looked down at the table. 

“Charlie..”

“I said I’m fine,” He pushed his chair back from the table and got up, walking quickly into the bathroom and shutting the door. 

Dee sat at the kitchen table, alone now. She stared down at the last two rules Charlie had made her add. She was pretty sure that anyone else wouldn’t have even bothered to mention them, because they were just things that everyone already followed, that everyone already did, whether it was a secret friends-with-benefits situation or an official relationship or anything in between. There were exceptions to “everyone”, which were the disgusting pigs like her brother who thought they were entitled to anyone and anything at anytime, regardless of the other person’s wants, needs, or feelings. 

Suddenly she was thinking that maybe Charlie had experienced a run in with one of those pigs at some point in his life. That thought alone made her feel sick to her stomach. Someone taking advantage of Charlie-- _her Charlie_ , she thought in the back of her mind-- was a repulsive and infuriating idea. It wasn’t really her place to prod, but now that the idea was in her head she needed to know for sure. 

She got up from the table and walked over to the bathroom door, knocking softly. 

“Charlie?” She called through the door. There was no answer, “Charlie, are you okay?”

She heard some shuffling, and possibly some sniffling, through the door. 

“I wanna talk to you, please..” Dee tried to coax him out, “Come out and we can sit on the bed and talk..” She looked over at the clock on the wall. It was almost midnight, “You can even sleep over here, if you want.”

There was a pause.

“If I wanna stay over, do we have to do sex?” He finally said. 

“No,” She shook her head even though he couldn’t see her, “We don’t have to do anything tonight. I just wanna talk for a little bit and then you can sleep in bed with me, okay?”

Another long pause. 

“Okay..”

Charlie finally opened the door to the bathroom and stepped out. Dee could tell he’d been crying, at least a little bit. His eyes were puffy and he had some snot coming out of his nose that he hadn’t wiped away yet. His hair was tousled from where he’d probably been pulling at it like he sometimes did when he got upset. Dee thought that maybe she’d scratch his head a bit before he went to sleep later. He liked that. 

They both sat down on the bed but neither one said anything for awhile. Dee didn’t know how to really approach the topic. It was sensitive and personal and she knew that she could very easily upset Charlie or scare him off altogether. 

“Can I ask you something really personal, Charlie?” 

“Um..” He shifted nervously on the mattress, picking at some loose strings on his dirty jeans, “I guess so…” 

“Why did you want to add those rules to the list?” She kept looking at him, even though he wouldn’t make eye contact. 

He shrugged. 

“Charlie..” She said softly, reaching out a hand and resting it on his knee. 

He flinched. 

“Did.. Did someone break those rules with you?” Dee didn’t know if he’d understand what she was asking. She didn’t want to straight up ask if he’d been raped or molested. Those were scary and intense words that would probably just make him panic, and set him more on edge than he already was. 

He didn’t say anything but his silence spoke louder than any words he could have said. 

“Who was it, Charlie?” She swallowed nervously, almost afraid of the answer. 

He shook his head. 

“I don’t… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” He shut his eyes tightly. 

“Charlie, it’s okay.. You can tell me..” She encouraged. 

It was silent for a few minutes. She let it settle between them. She could tell he was thinking. She didn’t know what he was thinking about, or what exactly was going on in that head of his, but she didn’t want to interrupt whatever it was. He seemed to be focusing pretty hard. Maybe he was recalling a memory or trying to decide how much he wanted to tell her, if anything at all. 

“When I was younger..” He said, his voice shaking a little. He cleared his throat before he continued, “When I was younger my uh, my uncle would come over a lot and my mom would.. She’d leave us alone together a lot because she had stuff she had to do, y’know? He would, he’d stay in my room when he was staying at my house and, and sometimes he’d even share my bed with me because he, he said that um.. That it would be too cold for us to sleep separately…” He was still looking down at his jeans and at the mattress. 

Without even hearing the rest of what he had to say, she knew where it was going. She knew how the story was going to continue. Her stomach tied itself in knots and she could feel her lungs being constricted in her chest. She wasn’t entirely sure if she wanted him to continue, because she didn’t know if she could bare to hear it. However, Dee knew that she’d opened this door and it wouldn’t be fair to slam it shut on him just as he’d started to show her what was inside. 

“Sometimes… A lot of times… He’d um, we’d play games….” He ran a hand through his hair and pulled at the back of it a bit before dropping his hand into his lap, “And, and they weren’t really that fun and sometimes y’know I wouldn’t want to play the games but we’d play them anyway… We’d play them anyway and he’d say not to tell my mom because she um, she wouldn’t understand why we played the games, y’know? He said she’d be mad at me for it, but I didn’t even _want_ to play the games so, so I don’t know why she would get mad at me,” She could see his eyes starting to tear up. 

“And sometimes.. Sometimes when we’d share a bed together I’d wake up and, and I’d just feel gross, y’know? Like I’d just feel like something was wrong… Or I’d wake up in the middle of the night and… He’d be playing one of the, one of the games without me knowing, while I was asleep, and I didn’t like that.. I didn’t like that, Dee,” A tear fell out of his eye and down his cheek. It dropped off of his chin and fell onto his jeans, leaving a dark spot. 

“I never told anyone before cuz,” He harshly rubbed his eye with the back of his hand, “Cuz when I got older I told him I was gonna tell my mom but he said that if I did, that she’d think I was gay, and she’d tell people I was gay.. But I’m not gay, Dee. I’m not gay, and I didn’t want people thinking that I was cuz, cuz… Cuz I’m not,” He trailed off.

Dee found herself trying not to cry. 

“Do you think I’m gay now? Do you not wanna have sex with me anymore?” He still didn’t look up at her. 

“Oh god, Charlie,” She said softly, “No I don’t think you’re gay,” Dee took his hand in hers and threaded her fingers in his, “This doesn’t change anything about… About us or how I feel about you,” Dee didn’t know how that sounded. She didn’t want it to sound like they were a couple or like she was in love with him or anything of that sort. But it felt right to say, at least for now, “Nobody would think you’re gay after hearing that.”

“Your uncle, he… He used you, and that’s not okay,” She shook her head, “That’s not okay, at all.. I would never, _never ever_ use you like that. Or do anything like that to you, _ever_. I swear on my goddamn life, and on everything that means anything to me. I would never do that to you, Charlie,” Dee wasn’t sure she’d ever said anything so genuinely and passionately in her entire life. She needed him to understand, to believe, and to hear what she was saying. 

“I swear to god that you’re safe with me, Charlie. You’re safe,” She squeezed his hand gently.

He finally lifted his head to look at her. 

“You don’t think I’m gross, do you Dee?” 

“No Charlie, I don’t think you’re gross.”

He nodded and she felt him squeeze her hand back. 

“Come here,” She said, shifting to sit back against the headboard. 

He moved closer to her and she pulled him close, letting his head rest on her chest. He wrapped an arm around her lower torso and his arm rested on her stomach. Their legs tangled in between one another’s. Dee held him close. Her hand went into his hair, carding through his hair slowly and gently scratching her nails against his scalp. He hummed gently in response to the feeling. 

“Do you think we could finish writing the rest of the rules later?” Charlie asked after a few minutes of silence. 

Dee nodded her head, “Yeah, that’s fine,” The rules were the last thing on her mind at the moment. 

There were a few more moments of silence. She was starting to doze off. 

“Please don’t tell anyone,” He whispered. 

“I won’t, Charlie,” She promised, “Cross my heart and hope to die.” 

He nodded. She could feel his body starting to finally relax.

After about seven or eight minutes of peaceful silence, she heard the sound of him starting to snore quietly. 

It made her smile.


End file.
